Monday Productivity Pointers: Collaborating with Dropbox

This week’s edition of Monday Productivity Pointers covers all things Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud storage and file syncing service offering users 2GB of space for free to hold, sync, and share files with others. You can access your files at any time via a web browser, and there are also desktop, tablet, and smartphone editions.

In the first video, I show you how easy it is to install Dropbox on a desktop and immediately start syncing files and folders.

Once your Dropbox is up and running, I take you through sharing a folder with another Dropbox user. This is one of my favorite features of Dropbox. The folder stays where it is on my computer, and I’ll be notified when someone adds or modifies a file. I use this a lot when I’m working on a presentation with someone else. Together, and on our own time, we populate the folder with files, assets, brainstorms, and drafts of the actual presentation.

I also have a shared folder with my bandmates, in which I may find that some new lyrics sheets have appeared, or photos from a performance.

Speaking of photos, the second video is all about working with pictures in Dropbox. I used to store all my photos from digital cameras on my PC. I moved them over to Dropbox (which was easy, as I just copied and pasted my “Photos” folder over to the Dropbox folder on my computer), and now if I want someone to view my photos, I can easily send them a link. Once they’ve clicked the link, they can see the pictures as a gorgeous online gallery with no further effort required from me.

If this is something that appeals to you, I recommend paying the $9.99 fee per month for additional storage, as photo collections tend to grow quickly and all too soon you’ll find that you’ve hit the initial 2GB limit.

One last feature of Dropbox and photo storage: the mobile version can automatically sync every photo that you take with your smartphone. Now that I take all my once-in-a-lifetime shots with my phone’s camera, it’s nice to know I can scratch “backup photos” off my to-do list!